by T I WADE
The light he shone ahead moved along the walls faster and faster, until he ordered Ryan to apply brake pressure. Ryan didn’t apply it hard enough and the fork in the tunnel rapidly came up to meet them. Mars shouted at Ryan to hit the brakes hard, and he felt the wheels lock up underneath him.
The carriages slowed and they stopped ten feet passed the fork.
“Where does this one go?” Ryan asked as he began to lift himself of his ride.
“Straight into the hole that Michael Pitt blew up when he demolished this part of their base,” Mars replied. “If the brakes had failed, we would be exiting the shaft about now at full speed and would have a fifty to sixty-foot drop to the ground below.”
“Well, with the lessor gravity, we should survive the fall?” Ryan suggested.
“You can try it boss, I’ll watch you from here,” remarked Mars jokingly.
He grabbed onto the hammer hard and passed the laser to Ryan. Then he backtracked to the fork and with his helmet light on full power, headed up the tunnel to where he knew the water in the river, and glass panels had been.
Nothing had changed. The tunnel led through the sections that had been blasted black. Then the gold layering returned to the tunnel and he helped Ryan through the hole in the wall where a door had once stood. As he had seen on his first visit, the door had been half ripped off its hinges, and its silver shape could be seen melted into the wall lining.
A hundred steps further on another half-ripped open wall appeared in his light, they climbed through the second hole, which was slightly smaller than the first hole, and then Mars saw part of the tunnel he hadn’t seen on his first visit.
He and Johnny must have both missed the continuance of their tunnel. It was very black and Mars realized that this was the hole the blast had come through, as the next wall would be the solid see-through wall.
Mars stopped Ryan and he gingerly shone his light down the tunnel. There seemed to be a light at the end, but Mars first wanted to show the see-through wall to show Ryan. He wanted to see if the tree was there.
As expected, he reached the see-though wall that sealed him off from where the bodies in blue suits were.
“Time from start is 27 minutes,” stated Mars looking at his suit’s readouts. “Temperature has risen to one degree above zero Celsius, and there seems to be lesser radioactivity around us, as Johnny and I had before. My suit’s Geiger counter is not rising.
Mars checked for the tree. Yes, it was there. He had thought he had seen a tree, a very old tree, and it was there, small withered, but it still had a few green leaves on it.
“So there is a tree?” asked Ryan looking through the wall and seeing the tree.
“As before I count seven skeletons in blue suits, and without helmets,” continued Mars. “And there is the small river, which Johnny and I believe is running water. Why, because the bodies don’t have helmets, and we know that the Matt suits can’t handle space conditions, so there must be an atmosphere in there.”
“I can’t believe it,” replied Ryan. Then he inspected the see-through wall. “I bet this is silicone glass, much like we made for the porch.”
“Johnny and I had to return at this time,” stated Mars remembering his last visit. “We ran out of time, but you and I have been quicker, and still have time.”
“Your hammer is not going to go through that silicone glass wall. I believe the laser will fry us and the wall if we try to use it to open the wall, so I reckon we need to get in through that door in the rear of this room, or whatever it is,” suggested Ryan.
“Yes, we saw that door the last time,” replied Mars. “I bet that this tunnel will lead us to that door. We have time, plus the 30 minutes I know it will take us to get back so I think 20 to 25 minutes will be safe boss.”
The two men continued down the tunnel to the light, and carefully helped each other through another blasted metal wall. Here, the Geiger counter began to vibrate telling Mars of heavier radiation once they had both passed through.
Mars shone his light and continued. As usual it was only five feet high and he had to bend over to progress.
“My back is beginning to really hurt,” stated Ryan behind him.
“Mine two” added Mars “but I’ve found the door, or what looks like a flattened door where the rear entrance should be. I want to check to see where this tunnel leads to. I can see light at the end and bet it goes into the blast hole the forward tunnel leads to.”
He was right, seventy feet later the same massive cavern well over a hundred feet across and 50 to 60 feet deep opened out from the same hole in the roof, and his helmet light as he shone it around.
“This must have been their space port, or power setup,” suggested Mars. “I’m sure the cold fusion explosion, or whatever was in here, was the explosion Michael Pitt described in his reports.”
“I believe you are spot on young Noble,” Ryan replied. “I am starting to feel like Indiana Jones on his travels, and my back really needs a rest.”
They headed back to where the rear door was, and Mars found it to have the usual Matt door panel in the wall by the side of the door. It was blue, which meant there as power somewhere, but it wouldn’t open, there wasn’t atmosphere both sides.
Ryan sat down on the floor to rest his back and suggested to Mars to try the panel. It didn’t work. Mars sat down also to rest and looked at his readout. It was close to time to go back anyway.
It took them 30 minutes, not 40 minutes like the first time with Johnny Walls, to reach the others who already had the robots out and who were cutting through the yellow metal. The red dust had been cleared and the dull gold could be seen in the diming light of the sun.
The day was over, the robots could work 24/7 and it was time for the crew to return to the shuttles. Everybody wanted to know what Indiana Jones and his sidekick had seen.
The intercom was well used that night in all directions. Maggie listened to Ryan’s tale high above in orbit, and the whole of The Martian Club Retreat listened in as Ryan’s communication was fed through the base’s PA system.
“A better base than here?” suggested Dave black from the retreat.
“What do you mean?’ Ryan asked.
“Well, if they have running water, we won’t have to ever fly to our oasis to fetch water ever again,” Dave replied.
“But we don’t know if these guys are still on the planet, and they won’t take lightly to us taking over their base,” replied Ryan.
“They don’t take lightly to us being here in the first place,” added Jonesy.
“So, we might as well move in, and add running water to our base luxuries,” stated VIN Noble, this time in SB-IV with Mars and Saturn for the night.
The idea was discussed at length and Ryan told his crew that he would make a decision once he and Mars had inspected what was left of the base. It certainly wasn’t a strong structure after the massive explosion nearly 2 decades earlier.
The night passed slowly for Ryan and Mars Noble. Vivid flash backs of the skeletons of the Matts blended in to both their dreams and thoughts, and slowly a new Martian day loomed over the horizon.
Before they could head down the tunnel again, the blocks of gold had to be carried into the cargo hold of SB-III so Lunar could fly her into orbit. The robots had done well during the night and there were over 20 large slabs that needed to be hoisted up and through the roof doors of the forward cargo bay. These large slabs would have weighed 400 to 600 pounds on Earth, but with the much lower gravity on Mars, two astronauts still had to struggle to move the heavy slabs still weighing up to a hundred pounds apiece on.
The first three hour shift was used to move the cut up gold while the mining robots added more to be loaded. The second spacewalk shift four hours after they had returned to the shuttles caught up with the speed of the robots and it was decided that SB-III leave with one and a half cargo bays full of the dull yellow metal.
A tally was made, and Max Von Braun told the others that he reckoned that
the shuttle was heading up with over 3 Martian tons of the gold, its maximum weight.
Ryan didn’t even want to work out what this was worth on Earth. That was the least important fact. More importantly he wanted to get down the tunnel again.
Both men had to wait another night as dusk was fast on Mars and as Lunar took off layering the mining robots with dust, the sun set over the horizon and the temperature plummeted from plus 5 degrees Celsius to minus 30 degrees in the first hour alone.
The stars came out, white and bright and the crew could see SB-III go overhead on its first orbit 70 miles above them and speeding over the black sky lit up from the sun at 11,000 knots.
Aboard SB-III the cockpit was squashed as usual. The two astronauts had the best places in their flight seats. The two jump seats had two crewmembers each perched on them, and the other two sat on the small floor space between the seats. The door to the cargo bay was sealed as the gold was still dangerous to the astronauts. They couldn’t wear their spacesuit helmets, and had their suits on recharge while they sat in the cockpit.
Over time, Ryan’s scientists had bettered the spacesuits and these 8 suits the crew were wearing were the thinnest suits to date. It was only the second suit design which allowed the wearer to actually feel comfortable while wearing them.
Early the next morning, again the first shift was to carry the cut gold blocks to where the crane could hoist them into the larger shuttle. The smaller crew worked hard and managed to move all the robots had cut up before their three-hour shift ended. Now Ryan and Mars, after a four hour break could head back down the tunnel.
“How are you going to get in?” Max asked Mars in SB-IV during the rest period. Over sachets of scrambled eggs laced with vitamins, and green vegetables, they discussed how to open the door with less damage.
“Do you have a crowbar handy?” Mars asked the build crew leader jokingly.
“No, but we could do VIN’s old trick of holding a helmet full of air to the outside panel. It has worked before.” Max replied.
“How are we going to keep the atmosphere in the cavern once we open the door, Max?” asked Ryan.
“I think one of us enters through the tricked-open door, the door will immediately close once it realizes that air is escaping. If there is leakage, which we know will happen, the other person outside will see a puddle of air on the roof, depending on which is heavier, the Martian atmosphere or the internal atmosphere. Mars, I think you should go in with a video and the laser. You said it was lit up in there, so you should be able to record whatever you see.”
“With our last timed movements in and out, I will have about 20 minutes in there,” Mars added looking at Max.
“Mind the space sharks,” quipped Saturn from her flight seat.
“Of course, I’ll finally get to bring one back for Jonesy,” Mars replied smiling at his wife. “I’ll make sure it is still alive and get you to look after it.”
“I can time you from outside,” Ryan added.
Finally, and after two days of waiting, that afternoon they set up the two carriage train, and headed down the tunnel.
At the same time, Jonesy was jetpacking the fifty feet over to SB-V with a cord to get a hug from Maggie as the crew prepared to unload the gold.
This time the gold weighed nothing, and one net at a time, with two astronauts in control, was jetpacked from the one shuttle to the other along the tight cord. Compared to the hard work down on the planet, it took just two hours to move the treasure into SB-V’s forward cargo hold. Jonesy was quite surprised how much bigger the larger shuttle’s cargo bay actually was. SB-V’s forward cargo bay was a third full with the first load.
“We have two more loads of gold to bring up to fill up this cargo bay,” Jonesy muttered to Mark Price, his jetpack assistant. “I’m glad Bob Mathews didn’t bring the Dead Chicken on this mission to fill up. We would be here for eternity.”
“It is so beautiful out here,” Mark replied. “I can now see why you and VIN used to just sit out here and watch the stars go by.”
“I suppose,” replied Jonesy. “That was so long ago, but I think I’ll continue our hobby on my last space flight home. Thanks for reminding me, and I’ll remember to invite you. Ever heard of space sharks?”
“Yes, Commander Jones. I had heard of your stories long before I met you,” laughed Mark into his breather. “Your stories used to scare the living daylights out of my wife when she was a few years old. Thanks to your stories, she isn’t as keen on spacewalking as the others are.”
“Well the space shark didn’t scare Saturn or Pluto Katherine,” remarked Jonesy propelling himself out of the hold with the empty net to refill it.
“I don’t think anything could scare those two girls,” was the reply from Mark.
Chapter 7
Mars Underground
Mars and Ryan whizzed down the tracks much faster than before. There was urgency in this journey, and Ryan hit the brakes perfectly when Mars ordered him to do so.
They left the carriages after turning each one around, readying their getaway in case something, or someone followed them. The rear thruster had more than enough speed to push them back up the tunnel at speeds faster than a human could run.
They headed immediately to the silicone glass wall to make sure nothing had changed in the interior cavern. Nothing was amiss. Then they found the back door, as Mars called the metal door with the panel.
“Sometimes I hate wearing these suits,” stated Mars. “We can’t hear anything out of them, our vision is stunted to forward sight only. At times like this I would love to hear what is going on around us, and see through the sides of my eyes.”
“I understand, I felt the same when I spacewalked during the odyssey,” replied Ryan. “I expected space sharks to come out of everywhere when I was out spacewalking. Mars, if you took off your helmet right now, you still wouldn’t hear anything. There is no atmosphere to hear anything through. That Mr. Jones certainly started something with his space shark stories. I reckon that he has made the first Martian fairy tale that could be told to our next generations. Now let us get you in there and see what is new on this planet.”
Mars’ adrenalin was soaring when he filled the helmet with a bubble of air from the small emergency air tank Ryan was holding. He handed the full helmet to Ryan who placed it around the panel a second after Mars pushed the panel with his hand. Mars was standing in front of the door, and felt like he would be swept over by a massive bubble of air. It attacked him as if it was escaping from an air tank.
“Get in there quick,” stated Ryan and helped Mars through the rushing air of the open door. The atmosphere was escaping and as he entered, the door closed immediately Ryan pulled the helmet away.
Mars stood up for the first time in an hour. The cavern was larger and higher than the tunnel, and he took his bearings as the air stilled around him.
“Can you hear me, Ryan?” Mars asked.
“Very faintly,” Mars just heard Ryan’s reply. It was very faint, and Ryan sounded like he was a hundred yards away.
“That you Mars? What are you doing on the intercom?” asked a surprised sounding Jonesy 250 miles above him.
“Yeah, I can hear you as if you are sitting right next to me here in SB-IV,” added Saturn from the shuttle outside the tunnels. Mars nearly fell over with surprise.
“How come you can hear me, Saturn, Jonesy?” Mars asked totally shocked.
“I don’t know,” replied Jonesy first. “What has changed?”
“It sounds like you are sitting next to me with your helmet on,” added Saturn.
Mars looked around. The chamber reminded him of the chambers on DX2017, about the same size. It was light inside the chamber and the walls glowed pink, which reminded him to look at his suit’s external readouts. What he saw around him really surprised him.
“I’m in the chamber I told you guys about, the one with the old tree and running water. I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
“W
hat are you seeing?” asked Saturn.
“Describe exactly what you see,” stated Jonesy.
“Mars, can you hear me? Who are you talking to?” asked Ryan faintly.
“Ryan, I can hear Jonesy and Saturn clearly. I can hardly hear you. I think I’ll look around and then we must figure a way out, or we could lose all the atmosphere in here. But, first let me tell you my readouts. Oxygen: perfect. Carbon Dioxide: low. Nitrogen: low. Helium: very high, at the borderline of dangerous. Temperature: I can’t believe it, around 56 degrees Fahrenheit, or 13 degrees Celsius. Air pressure: low but I could just about survive taking off my helmet. It might have had prefect air pressure in here if we hadn’t opened the door and let the air out.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” ordered Ryan faintly.
“Ryan, give me a few minutes,” continued Mars Noble suddenly excited. “I want to look at the river and the tree. Dad, where are you?”
“Mars, Jonesy and I are heading back down from SB-V,” VIN replied. “I can’t figure out why we can hear you from inside that tunnel.”
“Dad, you remember the Matt bases you checked out around the solar system?” Mars asked.
“Yes. By what you have described, it sounds like your readouts are similar to what I found,” VIN replied.
“I have light, the base has power. I see what looks like a see-through door about ten feet to the side of the back door to the exploded cavern. The door to the globe room has a red colored panel on one side of the door. How do I open it?”
“Push the panel with your glove. If that doesn’t work, place your left hand over it. You will have to remove your glove. Your hand should be safe. If not you need to use your eyeball. What is your radiation readout?”
“Nothing. It doesn’t even show any. Maybe my radiation sensor is broken?” Mars replied. Everybody else kept quiet and listened.
“Can’t be, or all your readouts would be dead,” responded VIN. “The lack of radiation was something I was surprised at visiting DX2017 for the first time. I also thought my readout was broken. There was zero radiation in the asteroid, but the bases on the planets showed higher than normal radiation levels. I think the Matts have a system that cleans the air more thoroughly.”
